Every once in a while most of us come across some sort of odd behavior in our software that bothers us because we can’t figure it out. If you’re like me, these problems nag at you until you are finally compelled to fix them.

Firefox 0.9x bug
While there are a number of improvements in Firefox 0.9x series of browsers, I’ve also found there are several new bugs as well. The one that’s been annoying me the most is tied to the Firefox installation and how it integrates itself into windows. Windows tries to open a new instance every time you click on a link, and because something’s messed up, you get 2 windows and an error message. The problem lies in the fact that Firefox doesn’t clear out Internet Explorer’s DDE information when it’s set as the default browser. I put the error messages it was generating into Google and found a reference on Jon Galloway’s blog. This and another link on his page sparked my memory of messing around with DDE settings back in Windows 3.1 and I remembered all you generally need is the “%1” in the ‘DDE Message’ field for the particular file type you are trying to correct the behavior for. For Firefox, this means going to an explorer window, clicking “tools,” “folder options,” “file types” and then editing the properties for “(NONE) URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol” and the following entry “…with Privacy”. Delete everything but the “%1” (keep the quotation marks) in the ‘DDE Message’ field and everything should work normally. Phew.. glad to have that fixed. 🙂

Hey, you made it! This is my website’s new home for the immediate future. (At some point last week my website disapeared. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional, but as I only found out about it tonight, I wasn’t able to make the proper preparations for a smooth transfer. Sorry ’bout that.)

A new adventure..
Aside from playing Doom3, lately I’ve been working on a retro computing project. I’ve been playing with an Apple II+ I got from a friend and my wife’s old Commodore 64. However, I’ve decided to put that on the back burner for the moment and embark on a more exciting (and more useful) new project. I’ve had my HDTV monitor for a few months now, and still haven’t gotten it hooked up to a digital feed. With the cost of terrestrial recievers at $250+, I decided to attempt to build a high-def HTPC (Home Theater PC) instead. The idea is to come up with something that can basically be an enhanced TiVo type device that can also play games and burn TV shows and movies to disc. I’ve ordered the parts (which don’t cost much more than a reciever) and hopefully I’ll be able to start on this sometime this week. More on this soon!

Well, as you can see I’ve been pretty slack on the web updates. But, there’s been a lot going on lately.. or something like that 🙂 In the months since my last post Nan and I have been to the mountains, then to Texas to visit family. There’s been lots going on at work too. All in all a busy time, but still loads of fun. If only there were more time!

iMac modding?
In between reminiscing with Mechwarrior 3/4 over the weekend, I got fed up with the slow speed of my DV iMac. For it’s time, (circa 1999) it was quite the good little Mac. As the years have gone by and the OS’s have been wiped out and replaced by newer and more CPU hungry ones, the little Mac that could has become the little Mac that barely could. I therefore decided to attempt to overclock it. There’s some information out there on just how to do this, but unless you’re skilled at microsoldering I’d say leave well enough alone. The components you’ll have to disconnect and reconfigure are only about 1mm x 1.5mm (about the size of a few grains of sugar) and must be handled with extreme care. (not to mention the right tools) read more..